That’s how I felt after spending a lot time in China in last 2 years. China is essentially the US in 1950 and 60s. The cars. The urbanization (people move from rural areas to cities). The chain restaurants, hotels, and hair salons. The malls. The new industrial zone such as ZhangJiang and MinHang. The credit cards. The new apartments and houses. The highways. The bullet train. The new banks (foreign and domestic).
Deep under the surface, is the adoption of business ideas and business model. The scale of manufacturing plants. The scale of software companies (e.g., Microsoft is betting big in China nowadays). But that also backfired from time to time: Chinese made shoes got burned in Spain, because they are so cheap (drive local people out of business).
One worry is the environment impact of manufacturing economy. It is real, whether you want to face it or not. Don’t know what will happen if every family has a car in Shanghai. Besides the air pollution and the gas prices, the traffic will be a big problem…